The Montgomery County Public School system “underestimates” how much its mandatory gender and sexuality curriculum interferes with parents’ religious exercise, an amicus brief filed today by the Ethics and Public Policy Center said.
“A common theme in the [district court’s opinion] is that the School Board’s sexuality and gender curriculum really isn’t all that bad. As the court sees it, the Board is merely ‘striv[ing] to “provide a culturally responsive . . . curriculum that promotes equity, respect, and civility” and prepare[] students to “[c]onfront and eliminate stereotypes related to individuals’ actual or perceived characteristics,’ including gender identity and sexual orientation,”” the brief reads. “But the storybooks themselves, the Board’s instructions to teachers, and Board members’ comments tell a different story.”
Religious parents represented by Becket Law filed a lawsuit against the district this summer, claiming that the no opt-out policy defies religious liberty: Muslim law forbids believers from publicly discussing intimate acts, and Catholic doctrine affirms the biological truth of two sexes — male and female. Although parents were initially allowed to opt their children out of the lessons, MCPS banned opt-out options earlier this year.
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“Teaching that a biological male can ‘be’ a female and that subjective beliefs or wishes should take precedence over biological reality is not merely advancing ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion’; it is teaching that ‘gender ideology’ is true and that refusing to acquiesce is hurtful and wrong,” the EPPC’s brief said.
The curriculum also teaches that identity is “self-determined based on feelings or self-perception, regardless of the person’s sex (male or female),” the brief states. Along with its gender lessons, MCPS promotes radical transgender resources that claim the “biologically-based definition of sex is not only incorrect but oppressive.”
Gender ideology is contrary to religious teaching, the brief adds.
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Body & Soul Separation is Death